Calendar
California Institute for Integral Studies Presents a Lecture by Michelle Alexander.
Michelle Alexander is breaking the silence about racial injustice in the American legal system. In her book, The New Jim Crow, she explores the cultural biases that still exist, and how segregation has been replaced by mass incarceration. Currently there are more African Americans in prison than were enslaved in 1850. She blames the drug war for many of these, as people are then labeled as felons and stuck in an endless cycle of discrimination. How can they improve their lives when they can’t get a job, housing, or health benefits? This acclaimed civil rights lawyer explores the myths surrounding our criminal justice system from a racial and ethical standpoint, and offers solutions for combating this epidemic.
Michelle Alexander is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, and legal scholar who currently holds a joint appointment at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University. Prior to joining the Kirwan Institute, Professor Alexander was an associate professor of law at Stanford Law School, where she directed the civil rights clinics.
In 2005, she won a Soros Justice Fellowship, which supported the writing of her first book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (The New Press, 2010). The book has been featured on national radio and television media outlets, including NPR, The Bill Moyers Journal, The Tavis Smiley Show, C-Span Washington Journal, among others. The New Jim Crow challenges the conventional wisdom that with the election of Barack Obama as president, our nation has “triumphed over race.” Alexander argues that the sudden and dramatic mass incarceration of African American men, primarily through the War on Drugs, has created a new racial under-caste-a group of people defined largely by race that is subject to legalized discrimination, scorn, and social exclusion. Alexander challenges the civil rights community, and all of us, to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America.
For several years, Professor Alexander served as the Director of the Racial Justice Project for the ACLU of Northern California, where she helped to lead a national campaign against racial profiling by law enforcement. She is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Vanderbilt University. Following law school, she clerked for Justice Harry A. Blackmun on the United States Supreme Court, and for Chief Judge Abner Mikva on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Net proceeds from this event will go to the California Institute of Integral Studies Arc of Justice Bachelor of Arts Completion Scholarship Fund for formerly incarcerated students.
According to this tweet by Lauren Riot Bart picketing will begin at 1:00 AM at the Lake Merritt BART station.
According to email from an SEIU organizer:
Pickets Start At
4:00 AM at the following BART Locations
Lake Merritt (Major Staging Area)
Richmond
Concord
BART Command Station
Opens at Midnight, 100 Oak Street
510-350-4568
BART Hotline
510-350-4550
Friday, Noon Rally
Lake Merritt
Friday, Noon Rally
Lake Merritt
Facebook Page & RSVP.
BART Command Station
Opens at Midnight, 100 Oak Street
510-350-4568
BART Hotline
510-350-4550
People will be staffing a table with information about California solitary confinement conditions in solidarity with the suspended prisoners’ hunger strike.
Come on down and hang out and help pass out literature.
All supporters of the BART workers and the right to picket please assemble at Piers 30-32 at 5 pm.
Also a tweet:
lauren riot @laurenriot
#BARTstrike support action at 5pm is MOVED! Instead of West O #BART meet at Berths 30-32/Middle Harbor Park for Port of O action!
Here’s an account of what’s happened:
There was a successful picket line this morning called by striking members of ATU 1555 (with supporters from other unions and TWSC ) Members of ILWU 10 honored the picket line and refused to cross. The action targeted that facility.
However shortly before the picket line ended this morning a High ranking OPD cop (who identified himself as Chief of Operations) falsely stated that any picket line in the entrance of the Berths was ”illegal” – that the only thing he would permit would have to be on the side of the driveway or across the street.
The workers refused his ”request” plan to have a genuine picket line once again beginning at 5 pm .
All supporters of both the BART workers strike and the democratic right to picket are urged to participate.
United Nations special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan Mendez will engage with families of incarcerated prisoners in solitary confinement, students, faculty, and advocates/allies to explore: Is solitary confinement as practiced by the California Department of Corrections cruel punishment and torture?
This unofficial visit by Mr. Mendez, who has spoken out publicly about the use of solitary confinement in California prisons, presents an opportunity to engage all campus and community in a dialogue around the use of solitary confinement in our state’s prisons. While prisoners have suspended their historic hunger strike—which spanned 60 days in July and August 2013—communities continue to challenge solitary confinement as torture.
Other speakers:
Bernadette Rabuy, Human Rights of the Incarcerated at Cal
Danny Murillo, Phoenix Scholars Project
Marie Levin, Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition
Jonathan Simon, Adrian A. Kragen Professor of Law
Director, Center for the Study of Law and Society, Berkeley Law
map of UC campus centered on VLSB Bldg.
The Great 1970 Postal Strike, which shut down the mail system throughout the United States for the better part of a week.
This biggest Wildcat Strike in US history resulted in big gains for postal workers – from poverty-level job to a decent job. What were the conditions that gave rise to the strike? What are the lessons for today? Talk by postal union activist David Welsh, and a short film about the 1970 Postal Strike.
On October 19th, hundreds of people will align their bodies to create a human mural spelling out “FUKUSHIMA IS HERE” and then be photographed from the air. We want you with us.
We will arrange ourselves in 100-foot tall lettering. Our aim is to bring awareness to the continuing damage and mismanagement of Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Please arrive in the vicinity by 10:45 a.m. Helicopter overhead at noon sharp. Event finished by approx 12:15.
BRING:
A blanket or tarp to lie down on while we await the helicopter. Water to drink. All of your friends and family (friendly dogs are also welcomed). October weather is usually great, but you never know. Check the forecast and dress appropriately. (CAUTION: This forecast is for “inland” San Francisco. Conditions at Ocean Beach can be quite a bit colder and breezier.)
Stand up for your air, water, climate and community. The Global Frackdown will unite concerned citizens everywhere for a day of action, calling for a ban on fracking across the globe.
THE BATTLE FOR OSCAR GRANT PLAZA is a short documentary by Jacob Crawford about how the City of Oakland and its Police tried to shut down the budding “Occupy Wall Street” movement, turning downtown Oakland into a teargas filled war zone and injuring numerous people. Police video obtained in discovery in the National Lawyers Guild’s successful lawsuit and interviews with activists and journalists about their experiences, tell the real story of the disastrous Fall, 2011, police actions that pushed the troubled OPD to the brink of federal receivership. Co-produced by Dave Id, Indybay.org.
MANUFACTURING GUILT is a short film that appears as a Bonus Feature on our dvd MUMIA: LONG DISTANCE REVOLUTIONARY (www.firstrunfeatures.com/mumiadvd.html). The short takes on the colossus of Abu-Jamal’s contentious case, distilling a mountain of evidence and years of oft-repeated falsehoods to the most fundamental elements of police and prosecutorial misconduct that illustrate a clear and conscious effort to frame Mumia Abu-Jamal for the murder of patrolman Daniel Faulkner. Based on the actual record of investigations and court filings from 1995 to 2003 – evidence denied by the courts and ignored in the press – MANUFACTURING GUILT cuts through the years of absurdities and overt racism to produce a clear picture of how Abu-Jamal’s guilt was manufactured and his innocence suppressed beginning only moments after he and Faulkner were found shot in the early morning hours of December 9th, 1981. This historic and courageous film is the perfect companion to Long Distance Revolutionary – a film that is unequivocal in its force regarding Abu-Jamal’s innocence.
The films will be followed by a discussion with, among others, Adam & Jeralynn Blueford, parents of Alan Blueford.
Tickets can be purchased here.
What the new globalized, high-tech imperialism means for the class struggle in the U.S.
http://www.lowwagecapitalism.com/
2nd in series of three classes We will cover section 2 of 3 this week. If you missed session 1, no worries, you’ll be able to follow the discussion with no problem.
Our weekly open meeting for members and supporters to discuss the weeks tasks and projects. Come get plugged into ongoing housing defense work! We have abundant and varied work for all folks in any number of meaningful projects.
Rain location: SF Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland
Our weekly open meeting for members and supporters to discuss the week’s tasks and projects. Come get plugged into ongoing housing defense work! We have abundant and varied work for all folks in any number of meaningful projects.
Rain location: SF Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland
Meet at Berth 58, the SSA Terminal, at 5:00 AM!!
Port Truck Drivers have self organized and voted to shut down the port of Oakland on Monday morning at 5am! Solidarity requested! Support these workers who have been taking it on the chin and are fighting back!
From an email:
Yesterday a group of about 100 Port truck drivers voted unanimously to picket/strike/protest/shutdown the port on Monday morning at 5am.
Facebook page: More info & RSVP.
An Open Letter to the Community From the Port Truckers.
IMPORTANT LOGISTICS INFORMATION: There is parking on the Port at 7th and Adeline. Middle harbor park parking lot will be locked until daybreak. There are carpools from the Northwest corner of West Oakland BART (you can ride the bus there or park for free in the lot). Carpool drivers can be identified by the flashing light on their dashboard when they pull up to pick up riders. They will be driving people from the parking lot directly to the SSA terminal.
Please wear warm clothes! It is very cold in the mornings on the Port!
The NLG hotline will be up tomorrow! Please write the number on yourself in permanent marker! (415)285-1011
https://www.facebook.com/events/536144669809976/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming
AFTER THAT WE WILL BE RE-CONVERGING AT 2 PM AT WEST OAKLAND BART FOR THE SOLIDARITY PICKET, POTLUCK AND ASSEMBLY TO ORGANIZE THE 5 PM PICKET OF THE SSA TERMINAL
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news%2Flocal%2Feast_bay&id=9294329
Solidarity Picket for BART Workers Strike and Assembly for Port Truckers! FREE STORE, ASSEMBLY AND POTLUCK AT WEST OAKLAND BART EVERY DAY OF THE STRIKE @ 2 PM
THIS EVENT IS A SOLIDARITY PICKET AT WEST OAKLAND BART – 2PM POTLUCK AND MUTUAL AID FREE STORE AND ASSEMBLY. At the assembly we will form committees to coordinate food/clothing – conflict mediation – medical – media – propaganda- action.
Bart workers are on strike and as we know an injury to one is an injury to all. They are trying to make an example and divide the working class but we have the potential right now for a GENERAL STRIKE! THE IBEW Local 6, AFSCME 3993, AFSCME, IUOE 39, CAPS, SEIU Local 1000
Inter-Union Organizing Committee at CDPH and the ILWU Local 10 made solidarity statements and/or passed solidarity resolutions.
Also see Occupy Oakland’s solidarity resolution for the BART workers.
We know that their is a master plan to divide the working class because people can’t get to work.
We must unite in solidarity with one another. Drop all internal conflicts and be accountable to each other. Don’t be oppressive! We must support each other in our daily struggles. With our skills and privileges shared we can provide all our needs!
UNITE THE WORKING CLASS AND POOR!
THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL IWW EVENT.
People are needed to keep up a presence at the Port of Oakland so that ILWU workers can have a picket line not to cross. Come out and support the Port Truckers’ attempt to negotiate fair working conditions.
People are needed at 5:30 SHARP!
The Post Office has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!! Come and help plan our next actions in defense of our post office and against privatization.
Two weeks ago we learned that perfidious Post Office Executives, who only the week before had sent a letter to the Berkeley City Council offering to negotiate until at least November 12th, had had CBRE (Richard Blum’s company) list the downtown Berkeley Post Office for sale.
Check out the video of Peter Byrne’s talk last week at our Save the Post Office Rally!
Occupy Forum Presents
The Fight for Homeless Rights
with:
Paul Boden – WRAP [Western Regional Advocacy Project]; founder of the SF Coalition on Homelessness and long-time organizer, hell-raiser, writer and inspiration for poor and homeless people like himself in their visionary and practical fight for civil rights and social transformation – speaking on the California Homeless Bill of Rights and homeless-led organizing in California and the West
Mike Zint – longtime OccupySF organizer and strong presence and force in the 24-hour Occupy at Bradley Manning Plaza and 101 Market; organizer of the Occupy the Sidewalks campaign actions against the illegal sit/lie and anti-‘lodging’ laws being used to scapegoat and harass poor and homeless people in San Francisco – speaking about the from-the-street fight for human and constitutional rights
Attend the Albany city council meeting on Monday, October 21st and tell them to delay the evictions until permanent, affordable housing exists. March from the Albany Bulb (1 Buchanan Street) at 6:30 to the city council meeting, which starts at 7:30.